Going Solar: How To Edition

[Leroy]

They live to give.

[cardinalkarp]

I work for a major solar builder and we work with developer and designers of all sizes and capacities. We work with one that has really cool app that allows you to put in your address, and other details and you can see what kind of production/savings/efficiencies you're eligible for with financing and everything considered.

I forget exactly which company that was, but I'll track it down and post it here if anyone wants to check them out.

Thrill, were you ever able to track down the name of that company?

[IMADreamer]

Tomorrow we are finalizing a deal to put a solar farm on 48 acres of our ground. Some locals are pissed at us, but they'd make the same move if they were in our shoes. My Dad is in a skilled nursing facility right now and I went today to check one more time with him that I'm doing right. His exact words were "you'd be a damn fool not to. You can't make that money growing corn."

This also furthers my belief that making money is 95% luck, 5% not screw up the opportunities when they come. We will make more off this solar panel deal than we will off the other 2875 acres we farm this year.

[Fat_Bulldog]

Sounds like a good move for you IMA!

[GeddyWrox]

Man, that's awesome! Hope it helps you keep the farm for generations more.

[cardinalkarp]

Any chance they are allowing you to run your home/farm w/ the power they are generating on your property in addition to using your land for the solar farm?

[IMADreamer]

Any chance they are allowing you to run your home/farm w/ the power they are generating on your property in addition to using your land for the solar farm?

We are already running solar at both the farm and home so we are pretty well covered for that.

[cardinalkarp]

Any chance they are allowing you to run your home/farm w/ the power they are generating on your property in addition to using your land for the solar farm?

We are already running solar at both the farm and home so we are pretty well covered for that.

Nice….and likewise. It was a large upfront cost, but damn, w/ the way things are going it looks like it will be a great investment.

Even with paying for the panels/battery it’s almost offsetting what would be are monthly electricity costs (on an all electric home). Over the year, we’re only paying in the $500-600 range for electric itself. At this rate, we should be in the black in under 10 years.

[IMADreamer]

Any chance they are allowing you to run your home/farm w/ the power they are generating on your property in addition to using your land for the solar farm?

We are already running solar at both the farm and home so we are pretty well covered for that.

Nice….and likewise. It was a large upfront cost, but damn, w/ the way things are going it looks like it will be a great investment.

Even with paying for the panels/battery it’s almost offsetting what would be are monthly electricity costs (on an all electric home). Over the year, we’re only paying in the $500-600 range for electric itself. At this rate, we should be in the black in under 10 years.

It definitely seems like it's going to pay off pretty well. Our rates have skyrocketed in the last two years. So having solar offset almost all of it has really helped.

[AdmiralKird]

Putting solar panels on your home is generally the best investment you can make. The returns are something like a near guaranteed 15% annualized over thirty years, which is practically Bernie Madoff territory. The caveat with that though is you don't start actually start making a positive return over other investments until about year 20. If you can do it yourself though a $30,000 installation can be cut down to about $12,000 or so and it can start paying out before year ten. Having such a long horizon though makes a lot of people hesitant to do it. That, and in my case, my roof's pitch is 45 degrees so I'd probably end up dead trying to do it.